A dc-excited plasma jet is developed to generate a diffuse plasma plume in flowing argon. The discharge characteristics of the plasma jet are investigated by optical and electrical methods. The results show that the plasma plume is a pulsed discharge even when a dc voltage is applied. The discharge frequency varies with a change in the applied voltage, the gas flow rate and the gas gap width. It is found that the discharges at different positions of the plasma plume are initiated and quenched almost at the same time with a jitter of about 10 ns by the spatially resolved measurement. Optical emission spectroscopy is used to investigate the excited electron temperature of the plasma plume. The results show that the excited electron temperature decreases with increasing applied voltage, gas flow rate or gas gap width. These results are analyzed qualitatively.

Using ambient air as working gas, a direct-current plasma jet is developed to generate a brush-shaped plasma plume with fairly large volume. Although a direct-current power supply is used, the discharge shows a pulsed characteristic. Based on the voltage-current curve and fast photography, the brush-shaped plume, like the gliding arc plasma, is in fact a temporal superposition of a moving discharge filament in an arched shape. During it moves away from the nozzle, the discharge evolves from a low-current arc into a normal glow in one discharge cycle. The emission profile is explained qualitatively based on the dynamics of the plasma brush.

A DC-driven plasma jet has been developed to generate a diffuse plasma plume by blowing argon into the ambient air. The plasma plume, showing a cup shape with a diameter of several centimeters at a higher voltage, is a pulsed discharge despite a DC voltage is applied. The pulse frequency is investigated as a function of the voltage under different gap widths and gas flow rates. Results show that plasma bullets propagate from the hollow needle to the plate electrode by spatially resolved measurement. A supposition about non-electroneutral trail of the streamer is proposed to interpret these experimental phenomena.

A plasma brush excited by DC voltage is developed with argon as working gas in the ambient air. The time evolution of the discharge current, the light emission, and the sustaining voltage are analyzed under different conditions. The self-pulsing phenomenon of the discharge is observed with oscillated voltage and intermittent current. The self-pulsing frequency ranges from several tens hertz to several hundred hertz depending on the output power and the gas flow rate. It increases with the increasing of the gas flow rate, while it decreases as the output power increases. The phenomenon is explained qualitatively based on a spatially resolved measurement about the discharge.

Using a plasma jet composed of two needle electrodes, a laminar plasma plume with large volume is generated in air through an alternating current voltage excitation. Based on highspeed photography, a train of filaments is observed to propagate periodically away from their birth place along the gas flow. The laminar plume is in fact a temporal superposition of the arched filament train. The filament consists of a negative glow near the real time cathode, a positive column near the real time anode, and a Faraday dark space between them. It has been found that the propagation velocity of the filament increases with increasing the gas flow rate. Furthermore, the filament lifetime tends to follow a normal distribution (Gaussian distribution). The most probable lifetime decreases with increasing the gas flow rate or decreasing the averaged peak voltage. Results also indicate that the real time peak current decreases and the real time peak voltage increases with the propagation of the filament along the gas flow. The voltage-current curve indicates that, in every discharge cycle, the filament evolves from a Townsend discharge to a glow one and then the discharge quenches. Characteristic regions including a negative glow, a Faraday dark space, and a positive column can be discerned from the discharge filament. Furthermore, the plasma parameters such as the electron density, the vibrational temperature and the gas temperature are investigated based on the optical spectrum emitted from the laminar plume.